N Korea bomb prompts global condemnation

US President Donald Trump tweeted "South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they (North Korea) only understand one thing!"

In another tweet he said North Korea's "words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States" and the regime "has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success."

Later when asked by reporters if the US would attack North Korea the president said: "we'll see".

AUSTRALIA

Australia condemned North Korea's "flagrant defiance" of UN Security Council resolutions and urged the world body to take further action against the "dangerous pariah regime".

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"We call for the UN Security Council to urgently consider further strong measures that would place pressure on North Korea to change course," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in a joint statement with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

Australia called for all countries, especially the five UN veto powers "to apply the maximum possible pressure to this dangerous pariah regime", according to the statement.

FRANCE

President Emmanuel Macron: "The international community must treat this new provocation with the utmost firmness, in order to bring North Korea to come back unconditionally to the path of dialogue and to proceed to the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of its nuclear and ballistic program."

CHINA

China, the only North Korean ally that is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, urged its neighbour to stop "wrong" actions that worsen the situation. It said it would fully enforce UN resolutions on the country.

RUSSIA

The Russian foreign ministry: "In the emerging conditions it is absolutely essential to keep cool, refrain from any actions that could lead to a further escalation of tensions," it said on its website, adding that North Korea risked "serious consequences".

JAPAN

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said North Korea's "nuclear and missile development programs pose a new level of a grave and immediate threat" and "seriously undermines the peace and security of the region".

SOUTH KOREA

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said North Korea's sixth nuclear test should be met with the "strongest possible" response, including new United Nations Security Council sanctions to "completely isolate" the country.

UNITED KINGDOM

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the United Nations Security Council should urgently look at imposing new sanctions and speed up implementation of existing ones.

"This latest action by North Korea is reckless and poses an unacceptable further threat to the international community," May said in an emailed statement.

GERMANY

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said North Korea's provocations have "reached a new dimension" with the nation's sixth nuclear test.

IAEA

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has no access to North Korea, called the nuclear test, Pyongyang's test is "an extremely regrettable act" that is "in complete disregard of the repeated demands of the international community."

UNITED NATIONS

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the test as "profoundly destabilising for regional security" and called on the country's leadership to cease such acts.